Josephy meeting President Kennedy.
Courtesy of Rich Wandschneider / Josephy Library
The 28th annual Summer Fishtrap Gathering of Writers is underway, nestled in the jagged peaks of Wallowa, Oregon. Authors from all around the Northwest come to Eastern Oregon for the week to meet and tell their stories — stories of the west.
This year's theme takes on a deep significance for the community of Eastern Oregon.
“Hidden From History: Stories We Haven’t Heard, Stories We Haven’t Told," is dedicated to the late historian and journalist Alvin Josephy in honor of his 100th birthday. He was a founding father of Fishtrap, but above all he's renowned for his incredible writing on Native American issues and the community work he did for the region.
"The characteristic of Alvin Josephy that made him stand out was that he listened to Indians…he felt they had been left out of history, that they were viewed as a sideshow," said Josephy's good friend and colleague, Rich Wandschneider, who co-founded Fishtrap.
Wanderschneider says Josephy's ultimate goal was to provide a voice for the natives. Most historical accounts of native history in the 50s and 60s were incredibly biased, written from the white perspective that ignored many of the hardships suffered during land expansion.
Josephy wanted to change that. But he didn’t always know this would be his life calling.
He was a war correspondent with the Marines in the Pacific during WWII, a Hollywood screenwriter, and an editor at Time magazine before he discovered the story that would change his life, the story of the Nez Perce tribe.
A Story Untold
At the Walla Walla Treaty of 1855, 7.5 million acres of land was granted to the Nez Perce tribe. But by 1863, tensions rose greatly as gold was discovered on the reservation.
According to historians, the deal was violated. The Nez Perce were coerced into signing a new treaty in 1863, reducing their land to one tenth of its previous size, and forced to move to a reservation in Idaho. But not everyone in the tribe agreed to these terms. A group of warriors led by Chief Joseph stayed and fought for their ancestral land. They were eventually driven out and exiled from Oregon.
When Josephy heard this story, he moved from New York to Oregon to dig deeper. Wandschneider says he viewed it as a great American epic that deserved to be told and recorded for history. In the 1960s there were just three remaining survivors from the war. He met with each of them individually in sweatshops and their homes to understand what they went through and to tell their story accurately.
The book that resulted from this research was called "The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest," published in 1965 and still considered to be a leading definitive source for learning about the tribe. Josephy went on to write 13 more books on Native American history in the Northwest and worked as the adviser to Stewart Udall and Richard Nixon on Federal Indian Policy.
Josephy with Allen Pinkham Sr, a Nez Perce tribal elder.
Courtesy of Rich Wandschneider / Josephy Library
Perhaps one of Joesphy's greatest legacies was helping establish the Nez Perce National Park with the tribe, which spans over four states (Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana). It was enacted by Congress in 1965, making 2015 its 50th anniversary.
"The more you learn about history, the more you see where we’re going and what we need to do to go the right direction," says Nancy Crenshaw, a volunteer at the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center. "We want to encourage the Nez Perce to come back to their homeland. That’s the main goal, it was their land and then they were exiled so this is an effort to welcome them back."
The Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center is a partner of the park and was opened as an expansion from the annual Tamkaliks celebration, a pow wow that celebrates and recognizes the Nez Perce presence in the valley.
Though Josephy’s last book was published in 2005, his spirit lives on through the Fishtrap festival and the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph, Oregon.
Rich Wandschneider says that this year at Fishtrap, native storytelling will be in the forefront. He will also be giving a lecture about Josephy’s life, and what other writers can learn from his great listening skills and empathy.
The Summer Fishtrap Gathering of Writers spans from July 6-12 and features workshops, lectures, and live music.